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| Fact 1: 1668 Assumes full control as 2nd governor of NY |
| Fact 2: 1673 Loses NY to a Dutch naval squadron |
| Reference: LOVE135 |
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Individual:
(He o)rganized (1668) regular sessions of the executive council whose minutes (until 1673) comprise the first such record ever kept at New York. He established the first merchant's exchange, attempted to introduce printing into the middle British colonies, and instituted the first continuous post road between Boston and New York.
(NCCN)
Florance Loveless Keeney Robertson in her privately-published volume entitled The Lovelace-Loveless and Allied Families. Published in 1952 in limited quantities, the book has done much to perpetuate the mythology of “the New York heirs of Governor Francis Lovelace.” Ms. Robinson claims that in 1659 Governor Francis secretly (his family allegedly was opposed to the match for “class” reasons) married (“in America”) a Maryland woman named Blanche Talbot. This marriage produced a son named Edward in 1662--a Naval Lieutenant who died in battle in 1714. Edward’s son John then came to North America in company with his uncle, New York Colonial Governor John Lovelace (1672-1709), and settled “on large tracts of land” in Dutchess County, New York. This John Lovelace is cited as the progenitor of those New York Lovelaces who later moved up the Hudson River to Albany and Saratoga, and west to the Syracuse area (Robertson, pp. 54-56).
Ms. Robertson’s ignorance of the facts regarding Colonel Francis’s life is readily apparent, but difficult to comprehend given the extensive details on the subject available to her in 1952. The evidence she marshals to prove the existence of “Governor Francis’s marriage” does not hold up under scrutiny. The most credible historical and biographical information available shows that, after his 1650-1652 visit to Virginia, Colonel Francis did not return to North America until 1667. Between 1652 and 1658 he was in exile in France and Holland. In 1659-1660 he was a prisoner in the Tower of London. For the next seven years he lived in England. All of this suggests that Governor Francis had little opportunity to marry Blanche Talbot (or any other woman in “The Colonies”) during the period 1652-1667. During his tenure as Governor of New York, he claims to have been a bachelor, and no records from that time show him as espoused. Finally, after Francis Lovelace died in 1675 (Robertson provides erroneous death dates of either 1683 or 1686), his brother Dudley inherited his estate, and there were no claims made against it by any direct heirs.
Ms. Robertson’s claim that Colonel Francis Lovelace was secretly married “when about 38 years of age” (i.e. in 1660-1661) to a woman who “was opposed by the Lovelace family as not being as closely associated with royalty as themselves” is rooted in her misreading of footnote “a” on page 235 of Volume VIII of Gibbs. Referring to the erroneous statement in the text above that confuses Governor Francis Lovelace with “Francis Lovelace of Culham Court,” the footnote states: “For his petition in 1661 in relation to his ‘being inveigled to marry without the privity (sic) of his relations, and much below his quality and condition,’ see Hist. MSS, Com., 7th Rep., p. 144.” Because Ms. Robertson had the wrong “Francis Lovelace” in mind, she came to the wrong conclusion.
Ms. Robertson’s book claims that references to Governor Francis’s marriage to Blanche Talbot are contained in “records possessed by President Jefferson” held by The Library of Congress. The document in question--a December 6, 1669 letter from Governor Lovelace to Governor Sir William Berkeley of Virginia--deals with the guardianship arrangements for William Whitby Jr., (recently arrived from England) the son of Katherine Gorsuch (Governor Lovelace’s niece) and William Whitby (deceased) of Middlesex County, Virginia. The “Ruth” Gorsuch cited in some transcriptions of the letter is actually “Kath,” or Katherine Gorsuch.* The letter contains no references to Governor Lovelace’s marriage, to a son of his, or to Blanche Talbot (See: Pleasants, “Virginia in 1650-1652,” Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 17, no. 3 (July, 1909), pp. 288-291).
*According to J. Hall Pleasants’ 1916 article in The Virginia Historical Magazine (now known as The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography), “William Whitby the elder, the husband of Ruth Gorsuch, lived in Warwick County, Virginia; he was Speaker of the House of Burgesses in 1653… The son lived in Middlesex County, Virginia and appears to have led an uneventful life and to have died unmarried. His will, filed as that of William Whitby of Pyanketank River in the county of Middlesex, “planter,” was dated July, 1676, and proved July 23, 1677” (Pleasants. “The Gorsuch and Lovelace Families,” pp. 81-93.)
(" Governor, Diplomat, Soldier, Spy: The Colorful Career of Colonel Francis Lovelace Of Kent (1622-1675)")
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Individuals from other files that are believed to be the same person:
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